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Reeven Steropes RC-1206 Review

Reeven Steropes RC-1206 Closer Look:

The RC-1206 is a flat, low-profile cooler with a very thin (12mm) 120mm PWM fan. There are 73 aluminum fins capped off with a decorative top plate featuring the REEVEN logo stamped neatly in the center and two series of small holes on either side of the logo. The top plate also covers the termination points of the heat pipes. Some manufacturers leave the termination stubs visible, but Reeven keeps them covered up, and that makes for an aesthetically pleasing cooler. From any angle, the RC-1206 is a nice looking unit. At just 60mm high (with fan), the low profile offers a clear advantage when space is limited. I have to wonder if the compact size will compromise cooling capacity, bu we will find out a little later.

The fan comes pre-attached and this style of cooler allows for only one fan. The clips are a bit tight, but you can move them out of the way to remove the fan. From the top view, all you really see is the fan. The fan pushes air down through the fin stack toward the motherboard and this can be somewhat of a good and bad thing. The good part is that air is circulated across your other compontents, such as the VRM and at least the first RAM slot. The bad part is that, under a load, the hot air that exits the fin stack often recirculates, unless you have case fans that can really move air though the case and don't let it stagnate.

The side view shows just how low the profile is. The fin stack is not much thicker than the fan and the heat pipes have to make some quick turns to make it into the fin stack.

The base appears to start out as one extrusion and then the top of the base has cross-cuts to increase surface area and allow air flow. There are also grooves extruded through the base that the heat pipes pass through. The bottom of the base is actually a separate plate. During the manufaturing process, the base, heat pipes, and bottom plate are all soldered together. Since the fin stack almost sits on top of the base, it is hard to see the cross-cuts, but you can see them from the side view.

The base plate is machined flat and ready for a nice application of thermal paste. As you can see, there is an offset that will ultimately benefit RAM clearance. The two outer heat pipes make one pass through the fin stack and terminate at the base, but both ends of the center three heat pipes terminate in the fin stack. Don't forget to peel off the plastic cover before you apply your thermal paste. I removed the fan and rotated the clips out of the way, but they are still attached to the fin stack. Normally you don't have to remove the fan, but to show you the fin stack in more detail, I removed it.

After removing the fan, you can see how the fins are packed close together. There are 73 fins and the copper heat pipes are spaced to maximize the exposure to the air flow. You can see the four holes for the side mounting brackets, which have not been installed yet.

Since the fan is already attached, the only assembly you have to do before the installation is to attach the two side mounting brackets to the cooler base. This is easily done with two small screws per side. The ends of the two brackets have three positions you can select based on which socket you have. The brackets came with the LGA 1150 configuration ready to go, but to change the configuration all you do is loosen a screw at each end of the bracket and slide it to the necessary position and tighten the screw.

The 15-blade 120mm PWM fan is only 12mm thick, rated at 0.39 amps, and can move up to 45.47 CFM of air. The rated speed is 500 to 2000 RPM with a noise level of 9.32 ~ 33.67dBA. The power cable is sheathed in a braided, black plastic cover. This is becoming a common practice now across manufacturers and really helps to keep your cable routing clean and tidy.

The rear mounting does not use the typical back plate. This cooler is small and light enough that the additional support of a back plate is not necessary. There are four studs (with the rubber washers) that push through the motherboard and screw directly into the mounting brackets on the cooler. The four screws bottom out just as the rubber washers are fully compressed. This is a fast, simple, yet effective method of attaching the cooler.

RAM clearance depends on the mounting orientation. For my installation, the best fit was to mount the offset facing the I/O header (to the left) toward the rear of the case. This allows full access to the RAM slots, but of course, your motherboard layout may allow the cooler to be mounted more easily in different orientations. I am used to large tower coolers, so seeing one this shallow seems a bit odd at first; almost like the fan is sitting right on the CPU. All you have to do now is plug the fan into one of the CPU fan headers and power it up.